By Alexandra Moscato
For over a century, St. John’s Ambulance have been made up of volunteers providing communities across Canada with first aid services.
Algonquin police foundations student Chris Brown is one of them. Brown got started after he obtained his medical first responder training through firefighting, which got him into it right away. As long as the person has their CPR level C, they can apply to work as a health care provider.
Chris Brown, a police foundations student, got started in it after he got his medical first responder through firefighting, which got him into it right away. As long as you have your CPR level C you can apply to work as a health care provider.
Once they’re accepted into St. John’s, they offer 40 hours of more advanced first aid training, at no cost, where they learn how to administer oxygen, take blood pressure, and much more.
“We’re nowhere near the official paramedic level, but we’re there to provide first aid the best we can until the paramedics come to relieve us,” said Brown.
The volunteers do a lot of work at the Ottawa 67’s games as well as other events like Canada Day and Bluesfest. The money obtained from hiring St. John’s goes directly into the medical care and facilities, as well as the training needed for the volunteers.
They require each volunteer to do a minimum of 60 hours a year of volunteer work, to make up for the training they do.
“We want to be police officers and doing first aid is a great way for us to gain experience by working in stressful situations, learning how to keep calm and asses the problems,” said Riley Adamson Jones, police foundations student.
There are a lot of volunteers from all different walks of life, from nurses to military, who all come together to train and learn new skills to be able to give back to the community. Although they might not be paramedics, they’re a great help, and all the people they’ve helped so far seem to be grateful of their service.
Although their future career is in policing, “I plan on sticking with it as long as my schedule lets me,” said Brown.